Expectations, Greatness and Flaming Insides
I. Two EXPECTATIONS of the coming KINGDOM.
A. DISCIPLES had a strong EXPECTATION of the coming kingdom. (10:42, 32)
1. What matters is this kind of power is what they know. (10:42)
2. What Jesus was teaching and the way he was living was radically different than what they were
learning from the world around them.
Q. How do you see greatness being defined in your world? In your family, your friendships, your work environment, in the church, in the broader world?
Q. Who are the leaders are you looking to for your example? What are you learning from them?
B. JESUS had a DIFFERENT expectation of the coming kingdom. (10:43, 33, 8:31-33, 9:30-32)
1. They have no context for this kind of leadership. (10:43-45)
2. Jesus paused to remind them about how He expected coming into his kingdom was going to play out.
3. But the disciples just didn’t get it.
II. A CONVERSATION about GREATNESS.
A. Disciples DESIRE to be GREAT in Jesus’ Kingdom. (10:35-41)
1. But what they haven’t come to understand yet is that greatness and power in God’s kingdom also involves suffering and sacrifice.
2. Jesus doesn’t tell them it’s wrong or bad to desire greatness. He says, “Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant”.
B. STRUGGLING with the idea of “GREATNESS”
Q. In what ways do you struggle with the idea of “greatness”?
1. I can do all of the best serving in the world but if my underlying motivation is to be great, to be important, to have power, then I’m just stuck in a cycle of chasing greatness wearing a shirt that says “I’m a servant”.
2. We all want our lives to matter somehow.
3. Power, wealth, and influence, often define the world’s successes. So if we are letting the world inform us of what greatness means then, likethe disciples, we will be shaped by and expecting the world’s definition of greatness.
Q. What are you pursuing to make your life matter? If your friend was standing up at your Birthday celebration to give a toast for you and they said – He was a great man! Or She was a great woman? What would that mean? What do you want that to mean?
III. In GOD’S Kingdom greatness is REDEFINED. (10:43-44, 9:33-35, 10:29-31)
A. If you don’t understand His KINGDOM you can’t understand greatness in His kingdom. (10:45)
B. Greatness in this kingdom looks like LOVE.
C. Jesus SECURED the release of all those who were prisoners of SIN, who were held and oppressed by sin and darkness, He overcame Israel’s broken relationship with God by giving his life as payment on the cross.
D. If we are CAPTIVATED by Jesus and his love, and we are trusting his leadership and apprenticing ourselves to him then over time we are changed. And being a servant is no longer a t-shirt I am wearing but a fire that is within me.
E. We SURROUND ourselves with God’s Kingdom by
1. living with the Holy Spirit in our hearts,
2. spending time in God’s word often and regularly,
3. confessing our sins and being open to His correction and redirection,
4. sharing life with others who have committed to his Kingdom ways too. Being in this environment fosters great love.